Changes
by CarvingKnife
Summary: Byakuya has never payed much attention to the gifts he recieved from various admirers on Valentine's Day over the years, but when his lieutenant surprises him with a gift of his own, he might reconsider. First chapter has a "K" rating. Fluffyness!
1. Valentine's Day

**A/N: Happy Valentine's Day. :) I'm a sucker for holiday fics, and this one is no exception. This is a two-shot. The next chapter will be posted on March 14th, White Day. The "T" rating is for later. I'll be posting the next chapter for 26 Stories this weekend. Be sure to look out for it! Reviews are love and spicy chocolates! Don't forget that!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I just toy with the characters a bit.**

Byakuya Kuchiki didn't really hate Valentine's Day. After all, it was a day just like any other; just with a few extra speed bumps that he could do without.

Byakuya closed his eyes, his fingers mechanically weaving the white kensaikan through loose strands of hair. He worked slowly, sliding his arms into his haori and deftly wrapping the windflower scarf about his neck. Finding no other reason to delay himself, he left the room.

He expected the bright mounds of red to assault his vision the moment he entered the dining room, but the sheer volume surprised him. The SWA went all out this year.

"Some of these chocolates are actually homemade, sir," said a slight woman, a heart-shaped box in her hands.

"It appears that they are more abundant than usual," Byakuya frowned, picking up a box and opening it to examine the tiny chocolates wrapped in red tissue. It did, indeed, appear as if they were homemade.

"Sir?"

"You may distribute them amongst the other workers, Fuu," the cold noble sighed, placing the opened box back on the pile. "I have no use for them."

"Of course, Lord Kuchiki," the female servant replied with a bow.

With that taken care of, Byakuya headed to the office, already willing the end of the day to come quickly.

"Byakushi!"

_Of course_, Byakuya thought with a sigh before nearly being bowled over by the tiny pink-haired shinigami. Sticky fingers wrapped tightly around his neck and it took quite a bit of strength to finally peel Yachiru off and place her on the ground.

"I brought you a gift!" she squealed, clapping her hands together. Byakuya said nothing, assuming by the mess of chocolate covering her hands and face that she had already partaken of his "gift". He continued walking. Yachiru followed.

"It was in a pretty red box, almost as red as pineapple-head's hair!" she yammered on, describing the present of candy that she had devoured.

The Kuchiki noble reached deep within his shihakusho and pulled out a sweet bun for just such an occasion and promptly shoved it into Yachiru's open mouth. The eleventh division lieutenant smiled, chewing happily before running off to bother some other poor soul.

Byakuya continued on his way, bringing his thoughts to the last thing Yachiru Kusajishi had said.

Renji Abarai seemed like the kind of person who would enjoy this holiday. It was a day devoted to the fiery, passionate type, and his lieutenant certainly fit that description. The burning red that marked the holiday suited him well, and the stoic captian thought of those crimson tresses continuously tied up in the customary pony-tail. Of course, it helped that the tattooed man was quite attractive by anyone's standards. Byakuya could imagine Renji waking up to piles of valentines sitting outside his door, a wild smile lighting up his face as he sifted through each box, consuming the sweet candies one by one. The steel-eyed shinigami wondered if his lieutenant would answer any of those blatant symbols of affection, confused by the twinge of sadness that squeezed his chest at the thought.

As usual, there was no sign of the fiery lieutenant when Byakuya arrived at the office. Ignoring the piles of red outside the door, Byakuya sat at his desk and got right to work.

It was a couple hours later that Renji finally invaded Byakuya's sense of calm with his burning reiatsu, making a show of bursting through the door as if he tried everything in his power to be on time for once.

"Sorry I'm late, Taichou!" Renji apologized, out of breath.

The raven-haired captain dismissed his lieutenant's abrasive entrance with a flick of his hand. "Get to work, Abarai."

Renji nodded, settling down in his chair and bending over the piles of forms on his desk. Byakuya was almost disappointed to feel the redhead pull in his wild reiatsu. It was a feeling he had gotten used to over the years of working so closely with Renji and he actually enjoyed the touch of pressure in the air.

The sensation had changed dramatically with time, starting off as a violent lash of reiatsu that Byakuya had no qualms with crushing with the gravity of his own. After some time, the feeling had changed to an almost caress, brushing softly, tentatively at first, against Byakuya's skin. Startled, the noble had roughly shoved the pressure away the first time he felt it, but after realizing that Renji seemed to be oblivious to his own reiatsu's actions, eventually gave in to the light touches.

"Uh, Taichou?"

Byakuya looked up, realizing that he had been frowning at the same form for ten minutes.

"Yes, Abarai?"

"Well," Renji smiled warmly, "I got ya somethin'."

The icy captain said nothing, watching as the other man walked over to his desk, pulling a small red box out of his shihakusho and placing it on the wood surface. Byakuya slowly reached for the box, lifting the lid to find the usual small, round chocolates wrapped delicately in red tissue.

"I know ya don' like sweets," Renji said, rubbing the back of his neck. "So I made these. They're wasabi truffles."

Byakuya silently picked a truffle out of the paper, placing it in his mouth and closing his eyes as a delicious mix of sweet and spicy attacked his taste buds. After the chocolate had dissolved on his tongue, Byakuya opened his eyes to find Renji staring at him nervously.

"They are exquisite, but why present me with such a gift?" Byakuya questioned.

"Uh . . . well, ya see . . . um . . ." Renji babbled, growing quiet when his captain frowned and settling for a quick shrug.

"I see," the sixth division captain said, bringing his attention back to his paperwork. "I thank you for the chocolate, now get back to work."

Renji nodded and walked back to his desk, glancing up at Byakuya and smiling when his cold captain placed another spicy morsel on his tongue, savoring the taste.

Unbeknownst to the volatile shinigami, Byakuya leaned against the sudden surge of affectionate reiatsu lightly brushing against his skin. The candies were, indeed, delicious, and it seemed as if Renji had put in a lot of effort to make them.

_Perhaps_, Byakuya thought, closing his eyes as a tendril of pressure nuzzled against his cheek, _I should return the favor._


	2. White Day

**A/N: I am sooooo sorry! I truely meant to get this posted by White Day, but I was so busy that I didn't have the time! I'm sorry! **

**EDIT: Forgot to add a certain element to the story. . It's all better now.**

**Anywho, for those of you who don't know what White Day is, it's a holiday celebrated in Japanese culture. It occurs exactly a month after Valentine's Day and is an opportunity for men to reply to the gifts that they got a month before. The gifts for White Day are usually white (duh) and cost at least three times as much as the ones they recieved from their special someone on Valentine's. If you wanna learn more, you should look it up! It's actually quite interesting! Reviews are amazing and I love them so very much!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Bleach. Tite kubo does. I just toy with the characters a bit.**

"You're delusional."

Renji Abarai shrugged.

"Do you really think he'll respond?"

Another shrug.

Ikkaku and Yumichika exchanged an incredulous look.

"'Course I don' think he'll respond," Renji mumbled, picking at his rice and fighting back a slight flush.

"Then why did you do it?" the bald third seat questioned, raising a brow.

"'Cause I wanted to," the fiery shinigami said simply. He pushed his half-empty bowl aside and stood.

"Where are you going?" Yumichika demanded, crossing his arms. "We're not done with you."

Renji just threw a half-hearted wave over his shoulder and walked away without saying anything more.

"He's hopeless," Ikkaku snorted, shoveling the rest of his rice into his mouth.

"I think it's beautiful," his feathered companion sighed, eyes sparkling as he watched the red-head disappear from sight. "Speaking of," Yumichika continued, batting his eyelashes in what he could only describe as an innocent manner, "What did you get me?"

Ikkaku choked on his rice.

* * *

Renji slowly headed back to his shared office, mind twisting around his lunch conversation with his old comrades. Today was March 14th, White Day. It was a day for people to respond to the gifts that they had received a month before.

The sixth division lieutenant didn't really expect his noble captain to respond. He chuckled at the image of Byakuya presenting him with a small box delicately wrapped in white, a flush coloring those porcelain cheeks.

_Like that would ever happen_, he thought, a snort escaping his lips. If Renji were to be honest with himself, he didn't really know what possessed him to make those chocolates for Byakuya. He recalled wondering what the stoic captain did with all of the bright boxes of sweets that appeared out of nowhere every year. Byakuya despised candy, so there was no way that he actually ate them. Renji couldn't help but feel sad at the thought.

The next thing the tattooed lieutenant knew, he had invited Hisagi over to help concoct a recipe that would appeal to Byakuya's spicy tastes.

_He actually ate them_, Renji smiled at the thought, remembering Byakuya's face every time he popped a spicy chocolate into his mouth; eyes closed, savoring every pulse of hot spice that hit his tongue. It was an image he never wanted to forget.

* * *

Byakuya was in his usual place, bending over piles of paperwork, when Renji finally made it to the office.

"I'm back," he said, keeping his gaze glued to his feet, afraid that Byakuya would be able to read his thoughts just by looking at his face. It wasn't until he had already taken his place at his desk that he noticed the thick, white bundle sitting on the edge of his workspace.

The volatile lieutenant stared at the white cloth, delicately wrapped in a soft white ribbon, before glancing up at his captain in confusion. The cold noble didn't even pause his deft brush strokes, placing the finished form aside and moving fluidly to the next.

Shakily, Renji reached for the gift, fingers connecting with the softest silk he had ever felt, and gasping when he realized that he had felt it before. He tugged on the ribbon, letting the long scarf unfold on the wood of his desk.

"T-Taichou?" he stammered eyes growing wider by the second.

"Yes, Abarai?"

"Is . . . is this from you?" Renji asked, holding up the windflower scarf to try and get a feel for its length. It had to be at least seven feet long.

"Of course it is," the pale captain replied, gently putting his brush down and heading over to where his stunned subordinate sat, staring at the valuable cloth. He pulled the scarf from Renji's hands and deftly wrapped it around the redhead's neck, smoothing it out over his chest. "Do you not like it?"

"O-of course I do!" Renji said, touching the silk around his throat in wonder. "I jus' wanna know . . . why?"

"I am merely returning your gift, Renji," Byakuya said simply, earning a surprised gasp at the intimate use of the younger man's name. "I had it made after our battle near the Sokyoku, thinking that I would never see this one again," the thin captain continued, gesturing to the scarf about his own neck. "I was surprised when you presented it to me after my stay in the fourth division, blood washed away by your own hands. Do you remember that?"

Renji nodded.

"I kept it near me as a reminder of the mistake I had made, of how I had nearly destroyed a bond that was meant to be strong, but instead, I started thinking of it as a gift from one of the most important people in my life," Byakuya closed his eyes briefly, remembering, before opening them to fix a warm gaze at the shocked lieutenant. "I hope you hold this gift close to your heart, just as I do mine."

Renji was surprised to feel a tear run down his face. Embarrassed, he reached up to brush it away, but paused when Byakuya wiped a soft thumb across his cheek, stopping to rest on the side of his face.

"I did not intend to make you cry," the older man whispered, a hint of sadness showing through his normally guarded expression. "I apologize."

Renji wanted to say something, but words refused to form in his head. Instead, he allowed his body to take over, pushing his lips against Byakuya's, and hoping for the best.

The noble captain was quick to return the kiss, allowing tanned arms to pull him closer, slowly sinking into a warm embrace. A familiar, burning reiatsu brushed up against Byakuya's skin, tightly winding around his arms, his legs, his waist. They pulled away, eyes locked into a searing gaze before meeting again in a flurry of sweet kisses.

No more words were exchanged, then again neither felt that they were really necessary. All that they needed to express showed through every soft kiss, every light caress of flesh and reiatsu, just as they would for the many years to come.


End file.
